TWO-TIMING THE KING / He quit his throne for her; she kept a car salesman lover

Alan Cowell, New York Times

Published 4:00 am, Thursday, January 30, 2003

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** FILE ** The Duke and Duchess of Windsor pose after their wedding at the Chateau de Cande near Tours, France, on June 3, 1937. King Edward VIII hoped to tell Britons of his love for American divorcee Wallis Simpson and persuade them he should marry her and still keep his throne, records unsealed Thursday, Jan. 29, 2003 showed. After his abdication, Edward and his new wife became the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.(AP Photo) less

** FILE ** The Duke and Duchess of Windsor pose after their wedding at the Chateau de Cande near Tours, France, on June 3, 1937. King Edward VIII hoped to tell Britons of his love for American divorcee Wallis ... more

TWO-TIMING THE KING / He quit his throne for her; she kept a car salesman lover

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2003-01-30 04:00:00 PDT London -- The prince nurtured a burning, hidden love that might block his way to the throne. His chosen one herself kept clandestine trysts. The secret police spied on all of them. And the government massaged the news media to sway public opinion. Sound familiar?

In fact, the events relate to another -- equally compelling -- royal saga: the abdication of King Edward VIII in December 1936 to permit his marriage to his twice-divorced American mistress Wallis Warfield Simpson. At least that is the fairy-tale version.

But what was not widely known to most Britons until now was that the unfolding romance between Edward and Simpson was closely monitored by detectives from the police Special Branch, who reported that she was two- timing the prince with Guy Marcus Trundle, a married car salesman.

The police reports are part of a trove of 120 files that the British authorities in 1967 ordered sealed for 100 years. In 1999, however, secrecy rules changed and the Public Records Office was ordered to open files not related to national security.

They "contain a wealth of detail that will fill many gaps in knowledge," said Susan Williams, a historian from the University of London. They may also deepen a view among some Britons that marital misbehavior is embedded in the monarchal genes.

The story unfolded like this: Simpson met Edward well before his coronation in January 1936 and was granted a preliminary divorce from her second husband, Ernest Aldrich Simpson, in October of that year. In November 1936, the king expressed his desire to marry her, but was told by government leaders that the public would not accept the marriage, prompting a constitutional crisis.

The king offered a so-called morganatic marriage according to which Simpson would not have become queen. Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin rejected the proposal. In December 1936, after the news broke in newspapers, the king abdicated and left the country for Austria.

In June 1937, after Simpson's divorce was finalized, the ex-king -- now titled the Duke of Windsor -- married her in France.

According to the documents released on Wednesday, Simpson navigated a tricky course between her husband, Edward and her other lovers.

"Mrs. Simpson has also alleged that her husband is having her watched" and "in consequence she is very careful for the double purpose of keeping both POW and her husband in ignorance of her surreptitious love affairs," a police report said, using the initials to describe the Prince of Wales, as King Edward VIII was known before his coronation.

"Trundle is described as a very charming adventurer, very good looking, well bred and an excellent dancer," a Special Branch report said in July 1935. "He meets Mrs. Simpson quite openly at informal social gatherings as a personal friend, but secret meetings are made by appointment when intimate relations take place."

"Mrs. Simpson has said that her husband is now suspicious of her association with other men as he thinks this will eventually cause trouble with POW," the report said.

The notion of the police spying on royals seemed uncannily reminiscent of the days before Diana's death, when she claimed she was under surveillance. Mohamed al-Fayed, the Egyptian businessman whose son Dodi died in the same car wreck as Diana, has always asserted that intelligence agencies were involved.

In another parallel, the documents released on Wednesday show that the royal family closed ranks against Simpson to prevent her from securing a royal title beyond Duchess of Windsor and that the government of the time was desperate to control the news media's coverage of the crisis.

Baldwin apparently feared that his main opponent, Winston Churchill, would use public sympathy for the king to win political support and, according to the documents, felt "the less opportunity for public discussion and debate, the better."

Moreover, the documents include what was said to be the text of an abdication speech that the government prevented Edward from making. In it he made an emotional appeal for his subjects' sympathy that might almost serve, in part, as a first draft for Prince Charles today as he seeks public acceptance of his relationship with Camilla Parker-Bowles.

"It has taken me a long time to find the woman I want to make my wife," the text said. "Without her I have been a very lonely man. With her I shall have a home and all the companionship and mutual sympathy and understanding which married life can bring. I know that many of you have had the good fortune to be blessed with such a life and I am sure that in your hearts you would wish the same for me."